


i just want to love you

by love1etter



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, M/M, Mild Angst, Summer, complete disregard for science lmao, im gay and i do what i want
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-03
Updated: 2018-08-03
Packaged: 2019-06-20 22:47:53
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,422
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15543852
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/love1etter/pseuds/love1etter
Summary: Mark steps forward and closes the distance between them “Where did you come from?” He asks pulling Donghyuck to his feet.“Don’t think about it too much,” Donghyuck replies, shrugging one shoulder with the easy, feigned nonchalance that can only come from caring too much “But I can’t get back there, not yet.”(or: Donghyuck is a fallen star)





	i just want to love you

**Author's Note:**

> sorry if this sucks because it's kinda really rushed and i wanted to keep it short. this was sort of based off of chungha's lov u mv!

Moonlight streams in through the gap in the curtains, coating the room in a soft silver glow. The curtains themselves are gossamer thin and do little to stop the light, they might as well not be there. Clouds float across the night sky in wispy streams, like cotton candy stretched out until it’s little more than threads. Beyond them, stars twinkle in and out of existence like a myriad of fairy lights. The milky way is just about visible, more of an impression against the deep navy blue and black of the sky than something with defined edges. At this time of night, it’s as if time has paused, the world has stopped turning on its axis and everything is perfectly still.

The cosmos holds its breath as one of the stars tumbles from the sky and arcs towards the ground in a streak of white gold.

 

He isn’t sure what wakes him, one second he’s asleep and the next his eyes are wide open and he’s staring at the ceiling. The sort of waking up where you panic and can’t remember where you are and what your name is. Everything is peaceful, so much that Mark is afraid to breathe too hard in case he disturbs it. Slowly, he sits up, letting the blanket pool in his lap and glances out of the window. It’s right next to his bed and he regrets the layout of his room sometimes in the dead of the window when icy drafts sneak in through the gaps between the panes of glass and the window frame and chill him to the bone.

On the windowsill, a small pot of daisies bloom. White and purple and impossibly delicate. They’re something of a miracle, Mark isn’t sure how they’ve survived this long with his less than stellar gardening skills. If he listens closely, he can hear the waves crashing softly into the beach and the sea stirring in the night breeze like a great breeze. But that’s just white noise, nowhere near enough to wake him. As he watches, a falling star cuts through the night sky. A brilliant blaze of light, there for a moment and then gone. _Just a comet_ he tells himself, just ice and dust burning up in the atmosphere. Nothing more. Another one, and then another, and another blink into existence until the whole sky is on fire. Mark watches, mouth half open in awe, and then he closes his eyes and wishes. A wish flung out at a falling star on a whim has more power than any normal wish.

One star is brighter than the others and instead of getting smaller it grows bigger and brighter. Whilst the others had been white and silver, this one is gold and red. A ball of fire hurting out of the sky and towards the beach so fast that Mark barely has time to register what’s going on before it slams into the sand with a crash so loud that Mark almost jumps backwards off his bed.

There’s a moment of uncertainty; should he call the fire department? Should he go out and see what happened? Should he just go back to sleep? And then the haze clears and he jumps out of bed, grabbing a hoodie from the closet and runs out of the house, carefully closing the door behind him with a soft click. Despite it being summer, it’s unusually cold and Mark draws his arms around himself, shivering slightly. 

He picks his way across sand dunes with a practiced ease. He’s lived here his whole life, he knows the beach and the ocean like the back of his hand. As if they’ve been tattooed into his skin in black ink. It isn’t difficult to find the star. Smoke rises from the crash site in a thick plume, moonlight reflecting off it like a beacon, and Mark heads towards it in as straighter line as possible. Apart from him, the beach is empty. There aren’t any other houses for miles, no tourists on this end of the coast, and his parents are away on a cruise somewhere in the Mediterranean. He’d be lying if he said the loneliness didn’t get to him sometimes. He’s so caught up in his own thoughts that his foot catches on something more solid than sand and he goes flying forwards face first.

It’s a stone, smaller than the palm of his hand, but surprisingly dense. He reaches over and picks it up, turning it over as he sits there. The centre of it glows a deep orange as if there’s a fire blazing inside of it, but it’s only vaguely warm. Veins of fools gold run through it, catching the light in a dizzying pattern. He shrugs and gets to his feet, tucking the stone into the pockets of his shorts. It’s probably just debris from the meteor, but it feels magical.

Picking up the pace, he runs the last few hundred metres to the crash site. The smoke is starting to clear now and he doesn’t want to run the risk of losing the only thing leading him to the fallen star. He jumps over the final sand dune and skids to a stop, shock freezing his entire body and locking every joint in place.

There, lying in the crater is a boy.

He looks as if he’s sleeping, red hair fanned out against the sand like flames and chest rising and falling gently like waves on a calm day. His clothes are odd, the material like nothing that Mark has ever seen before, his shirt is pure gold through with copper, and every time he breathes the material shifts like water over rocks. It’s mesmerising.

Mark steps forward, unsure of what he’s doing, but certain that he has to do something. The boy's eyes fly open, so wide that Mark can see the whites and it feels like he’s been fixed to the spot. Pins and needles crawl along his spine, he feels as if the boy is staring right into his soul and scouring it. Looking into his eyes is like staring into a black hole and it feels like an eternity before the boy blinks.

“My name’s Donghyuck,” He says, his voice is pretty, if it’s possible for a boy to be described as such “What’s your’s?”

“M-Mark,” Mark is embarrassed by how much his voice shakes “My name’s Mark.”

Donghyuck laughs, the sound is pure and clean, like a peal of bells “Mark. It suits you.”

Mark steps forward and closes the distance between them “Where did you come from?” He asks pulling Donghyuck to his feet.

“Don’t think about it too much,” Donghyuck replies, shrugging one shoulder with the easy, feigned nonchalance that can only come from caring too much “But I can’t get back there, not yet.” His skin is fever hot, but he doesn’t look unwell.

“Okay,” Mark says “You can stay with me.” It’s a leap of faith, he knows nothing about this boy.

“Thank you.” Donghyuck’s smile turns his eyes into crescent moons.

When they get home, Mark slips the stone into a box under his bed.

 

 

Summer stretches out into a blur. There isn’t much to do where Mark lives and he and Donghyuck settle into a steady routine. The air conditioning at Mark’s house is unreliable at best and so they spend most of the day on the beach, Mark swimming in the sea and Donghyuck sitting at the water’s edge, refusing to step in.

“I don’t know how you cope with the heat,” Mark says, every day without fail.

“I’m made for it.” Donghyuck always replies.

Donghyuck never mentions anything about where he came from or any other friends he might have and Mark doesn’t push him. It’s his business after all and Mark doesn’t mind having him around. He always knows how to make Mark laugh and he revels in the way that his jokes can make Mark cackle like a witch. From time to time, Mark’s parents phone, but he never picks up.

Days turn into weeks and their friendship turns into something more, something nebulous and undefined that Mark is scared to try and label in case he can’t. They’re still friends, he knows that for sure, but sometimes conversation turns to flirting, casual touches last a second too long. And Mark doesn’t know what to make of it. He doesn’t ask Donghyuck either, in case it’s all in his head.

In the end, it’s Donghyuck who kisses him first, right as Mark starts to think that it’s going to drive him insane. This constant state of not knowing, having to judge every move so he doesn’t overstep and push an invisible boundary too far. 

Donghyuck’s lips taste like the strawberries he had been eating earlier and his hands are warm as they cup Mark’s cheeks. When they pull apart, Donghyuck is grinning wider than Mark has ever seen him and Mark has to blink several times. It’s dazzling looking at him up close, like staring into the sun.

“I like you,” Mark blurts out “I really, really like you.”

Donghyuck nudges him in the side “I already knew that, dumbass.” And then he kisses him again and it’s just as sweet as it was before.

Mark takes to carrying the strange glowing stone in his pocket, as a sort of lucky charm. A reminder of the night that Donghyuck came into his life.

 

Weeks turn into a month, summer begins to relinquish its hold on the earth and Donghyuck slowly but surely becomes more and more irritable. His temper grows shorter, it takes less and less to make him snap and stalk off. His hands grow colder too, when Mark reaches out to him it’s like trying to hold onto a mannequin. Night after night, Mark will wake up to find the spare mattress on the floor that Donghyuck sleeps on empty, the sheets untouched.

One night he pretends to sleep and then follows Donghyuck as he slips out of the house and heads across the beach to the point where the sea meets land.

“What are you doing?” Mark always speaks too fast, before he has a chance to think, always puts his foot in it.

“I’m looking,” Donghyuck’s voice is so quiet that it’s almost a whisper “I lost something and I need to get it back before I can go home.” He never takes his eyes away from the horizon as he speaks.

In Mark’s pocket, the stone burns into his leg.

 

Time continues as it always must, Donghyuck steadfastly refuses to tell Mark what it is he’s looking for or why he needs it before he can go home. He grows weaker by the day, bags under his eyes turning an awful purple like a fresh bruise and he spends the whole day either sleeping or sitting on the beach. Mark tries to reach out to him, tries everything he can think of, but it’s like trying to talk to a brick wall.

The setting sun has stained the sky lilac and pink when Mark finds him. Donghyuck is standing at the shore again, wearing the same gold shirt he had been wearing when they met. Mark walks forward slowly as if Donghyuck might startle and run away if he makes any sudden moves until he’s standing in line with him. Tears stream down Donghyuck’s face like tiny crystals and they continue to fall from his eyes as Mark stands there and watches, powerless to do anything to make him feel better.

In the end, it’s Donghyuck who speaks first. Before Mark can pluck up the courage.

“The day you found me,” He says, sniffing “The reason why there wasn’t any debris was because I was the star.” Mark doesn’t say anything. In a way, he supposes, he always knew. It just seemed too unrealistic to say it out loud.

“I fell too soon,” Donghyuck’s voice breaks as he sobs “And now if I can’t get back I’ll die forever.”

“Why?” Mark asks “Why did you fall?”

 

Donghyuck turns to face him, smiling sadly and Mark’s heart breaks clean in two, straight down the middle “Because you asked me to.”

“B-but,” Mark is at a loss for words, there’s no way he caused this. He didn’t ask Donghyuck to end up on the beach that night, he just happened to be in the right place at the right time “I didn’t. I never-”

“When you wished that night, you wished for a friend.” Donghyuck sighs “The universe works in mysterious ways and ones that are way beyond my control.” He runs his hands through his hair and Mark notices that his skin has lost the shine it once had. It’s dull and lacklustre now. Bordering on pallid “When I fell I lost my heart and without it, I can never return to the sky. I’m trapped here. Stars weren’t meant to survive on earth, your atmosphere is toxic to me. I only have a few days left at most.”

A sick feeling spreads through Mark’s stomach as if something is eating him from the inside out. In his brain, puzzle pieces click into place and he reaches into his pocket and pulls out the stone. He doesn’t want Donghyuck to leave, but he’d rather never see him again than have to watch him waste away before his eyes. He presses the stone into Donghyuck’s hand. His eyes go wide and he glances from Mark to the stone and back again.

“You-”

 

“I’m sorry. I’m so so sorry,” Mark can feel tears forming at the corners of his eyes and he can’t do anything to stop it “If I’d known I would’ve given it to you sooner.”

Donghyuck runs his thumb gently across Mark’s cheek and Mark meets his eyes. He can see the universe reflected in them “I love you and I’ll always love you, I want you to remember that.”

“I love you too.” Mark barely manages to choke it out between sobs. He knows what’s going to happen now, it’s like watching a movie when someone has already tolf you exactly what’s going to happen but it’s still too painful to see it play out.

Donghyuck leans foreward and presses a soft kiss to Mark’s lips. It’s bittersweet, a final goodbye without goodbye ever actually being said.

 

When Mark opens his eyes again Donghyuck is gone and he’s alone.

 

In the sky above him, one star shines brighter than all the rest.

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading!! and feedback is appreciated :D  
> [curious cat](https://curiouscat.me/IoveIines)


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